1. Restore shortbow range to 1200. Longbow is currently the only option for poking in WvW without committing to a fight. Even Axe out-ranges this weapon by merit of bouncing to deeper targets. A lot of people felt cheated when the range was decreased having bought their dreamer to use in WvW, where range is very important. If the weapon is still thought to be OP following a range restoration then the damage or utility can be nerfed, but the response to this change has shown what rangers really want out of this weapon.
2. Increase base longbow range to 1500. This weapon lives for its 1500 range. Necromancers, Mesmers, Warriors and Elementalists easily outclass this weapon in DPS and utility at 1200 range. 1500 range is an attractive feature, and what drew a lot to Ranger in the first place, but pidgeon-holing rangers into the Eagle Eye trait is just no good, traits should be a choice, no a requirement for your weapon to function.
3. Rework Eagle Eye trait so it doesn’t increase range but instead gives more damage. On SotG it was said that the reason longbow’s base range couldn’t go up to 1500 was because of triggers that become broken at that range. Simply put, anything breakable by 1500 range is breakable now, and by removing the range increase from Eagle Eye there’s no excuse for longbow range to not be increased.
4. Restore pet leash range to 5000 for PvE and WvW. The pet leash distance was lowered primarily because pet leash range was being abused on certain sPvP maps where they basically had infinite range. In PvE and WvW this was hardly an issue. Some fun things removed by this change: long range jaguar assassinations (easily countered but still funny to try), attempts to attack siege at long range, using pet to try to disrupt a zerg without committing, punishing an enemy for chasing you after they’ve decided to flee (if they are chasing you and you’re running it’s trivial for them to make 2000 range between you if you spend a second or two continuing to run).
5. Reduce pet skill cast time across the board. And of course balance as needed. Many skills are a total hindrance in WvW and PvP. There was a recent post demonstrating that speed training (10% cooldown reduction for all pet skills) actually decreased some pets’ dps because of how clunky many skills are.
6. Fix Sword 1. This skill basically stuns you.
7. Introduce a major adept beastmastery (BM 10) trait that reduces the damage pets and spirits take from AoE. Pets (and spirits) currently are just not a thing in big zerg fights and higher level dungeons. This would solve their main issue, which is dying to the big red circles.
8. Replace Instinctual Bond (BM 5) with Speed Training (BM 10). In theory, pets with DPS abilities should do more DPS with this, and pets with utility abilities should provide more utility. In practice this doesn’t happen now because of cast times, but combined with faster pet cast times this trait is more in line with what a minor trait should be: not very powerful, but generally applicable, much like Necro’s Soul Reaping minor adept trait (10% life force generation). Also, Instinctual Bond is way too niche for a minor trait: most other “increase your strength when you’re downed” traits are major, but generally being downed is not a part of someone’s game plan and thus this trait is not very fun to build around.
9. Replace Nature’s Wrath (BM 25) with a new minor trait that lets you have manual control of all of your pets’ skills instead of just one. The idea of having manual control of your pets’ abilities was brought up on SotG. One of the main concerns seemed to be that it would overwhelm new players. This is a legitimate concern, but by having the ability tied to a minor trait you could circumvent this by not allowing new players access to this before level 60. Anyone that goes 25 deep into beastmastery would likely appreciate the greater pet control considering how many trait points they are sinking into what is currently largely controlled by AI.